Awesome! Congrats!

Camel Wash! LOL

YES YOU DO! It is SO unsafe to have a gun in the house and not know how to use it. There was a time when I was in the same position as you. Learning to shoot and handle a gun not only made me feel safer, but it also made my kids safer! Now, if someone breaks in my house, I am SURE not to go and grab the gun and accidentally shoot myself or someone I don't intend to shoot by not knowing how to handle one. It is a wonderful feeling and something I really encourage you to do!

My dh and I target shoot up until it is dark - dusk doens't stop us. And sometimes we shoot later into the dark to test our night sights and targets. Out here in the country, it is an everyday occurance and if it isn't us shooting, generally it is our neighbors or my in-laws. I would try not to worry...especially if it has been going on awhile. Usually people who are trying to hurt you don't give you a warning by shooting off random gunshots outside for an hour and a half beforehand. :tongue_smilie:

One year, we painted a good sized rock we found in the yard (we live near a creek) and wrote "Dad Rocks" in pipe cleaners (superglued on the front). He has it in his office. When the kids were babies, I took "parts" pictures of their little hands, feet, noses, etc and put them together in seperate multi picture frames. I did a good picture of the child in the center and then the "parts" out around it. They turned out well and we still have them in our bedroom.

You absolutely did the right thing. We have that same sort of issue all the time around here. :( Ds13 loves to negotiate with ds9 to get what he wants. :(

Aww! I am so glad your kitty is doing well. I have 7 cats of my own...so quite the crazy cat lady over here. It breaks my heart that the dogs hurt another kitty, though. Thank God the humane society took over. I know the expense of rescue and it can be overwhelming. Hope you pretty kitty heals up nicely...and fast!

I hate to admit it, but I have most everything my kids have done in the 4+ years we have homeschooled. It is getting to the point now where I am ready to let a lot of it go, but I want to make sure my bases are covered incase I am ever questioned by the state (TN), etc. So...what do you keep and how long do you keep it?

My 8 year old has an ipod and my 12 year old has an ipad. We do not, however, live in squalor. If we did, I would probably chose to spend what little mone we had on clothing or food...

I have been doing this to some degree too...usually not when I am out though, just when I am home. Mine correlates with my LOW blood sugar.

This year, my children did not make big jumps in their lexile levels. Both averaged around 20 points higher than last year. I think this has to do with Reading Comprehension...which both boys are in the 70th% range on. We have been doing HOD DITHR for Reading, which we all LOVE, but now I am wondering if maybe I need to add in something that concentrates a bit more on comprehension for this school year. Before I get into all of that, does anyone have any knowledge or understanding of the Lexile levels and know whether or not they should be jumping greatly each year? Thanks so much! Rebecca

Of course if the door is closed, you are not supposed to go in. However, obviously that was not enough for this particular group. Next time, I would A. Invite closer friends who respect your dd and your home and B. rig the closed door knobs with electricity and shock the he*& out of the next kid that tries to go in the door. :DHaha. Okay, maybe not the last one, but it was an amusing thought. Unfortunately, if it were ME rigging the door knobs at my house, I would likely be the one who stuck my hand on it and shocked myself. :tongue_smilie:

We used Hooked on French when ds8 was that age. It was simple and fun.

We have both Netflix and Hulu Plus that we live stream through our Blue Ray player. They are great and the cost is so minimal. I pay $7.99 a month for Hulu Plus and $8.67 a month for Netflix.

DS8 - will finish TT3 (started late), play with his Exploration Education Science (because he thinks it is too fun to be school) and lots of reading. DS13 - during the few weeks he is actually home during the summer(Camp after camp, grandma visiting, going to his dad's), he will continue with his full school days using HODs Rev2Rev. He will be with his dad for 3 weeks in September and 3 weeks in Dec/Jan...so this is the only way we can swing that much time off and still finish on time next school year. He is 4 weeks into his 8th grade year already and we'll just keep plugging away. :)

Ds12 used HOD RTR with Rosetta Stone French and TT Pre-Algebra. What wasn't a hit or miss was the stuff he did daily without complaint. HITS: Apologia Astronomy w/HOD book additions, Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algrbra, HOD History projects MISSES: MOH Volume 3 and the Shakespeare study in RTR. Both were just too much for him and he ended up telling me he was doing the reading when he wasn't. Didn't go over well at.all. DS8 used HOD Bigger Hearts this year. Like older ds, what wasn't a hit or a miss was just something he did everyday without complaint. HITS: Storytime books from HOD, History Projects/Readings, Teaching Textbooks Math 3, Cheerful Cursive, Elemental Science (add on for fun that he LOVED). MISSES: No real misses for him, but he hated his poetry copywork every day and complained throughout the year. We "grade corrected" with him and kept him in 3rd on paper while he advanced academically, so some of that may be a maturity issue. We shall see.

I didn't read all of the comments on this thread. Is this your step-son or your birth son? They way you are having off/deferring to "dad" made me think maybe it was a step-child. I hate to say this, but I mean it. If my son EVER called me what your son called you, I would be hard pressed not to knock him out. That won't be popular, but I will be darned if my child will EVER call me that. His dad, my ex-husband, called me that frequently and history will NOT repeat itself. My husband would likely spend a night in jail if one of my kids talked to me that way. There are some things that just aren't tolerated at all and that is one of them. That and a child hitting me...or dh. Those are MAJOR signs that a kid is heading in the wrong direction and that there is a severe lack of respect for the adults in his life. I am sorry this happened to you. :(

One of my dear friends decided to do this with a man she wanted to marry about 6 years ago. It ended so badly. The man freaked out and asked her to have an abortion. She did so to save the relationship. A year later, they married and got pregnant. She gave birth this time to a healthy child (who is now 4 years old). Every.single.day, the choice she made haunts her...and it has almost destroyed her marriage on more than one occasion. I really hope your friend decides against this plan.

...but if she has not done this for 8 YEARS, she really COULD have a bladder infection. Isn't it at least worth a test at the vet before you re-home a blind 12 yr old cat?? Or worse, PTS a cat you love? I have a 15 year old siamese cat whom I love dearly and he can definitely get on my nerves at times (he loves to get on my table and steal food!), but I LOVE him and I can't fathom the decision you are making. It is at least worth a trip to the vet. Surely.

80 yr old... over-reaction. 60 yr old...CREEPY!

This is heartbreaking. WHY did they deny her for a lung transplant? God bless that little girl and her family. I can't even imagine...

It stops after a couple of seconds.

Oh Lord yes! UGH! (I will be 33 in Aug). My dh, who is almost 43 and has hearing loss to a very slight degree can not hear it at all.

I understand your son wanting friends who are athletic. I have a 13 year old son too (August) and he is very worried about having typical "homeschooled kid" friends. That sounds bad...but it bothers him. I prefer homeschooled kid friends ten to one, for the record. What I am not understanding is why your son was sneaking out in the middle of the night to meet her. I mean, having her as a friend and sneaking out to go 15 miles from his home on a skateboard to meet a girl is about so much more than needing a friend. I have friends in the daytime...not in the middle of the night. KWIM? This is my biggest concern with your story...and having a 13 y/o, this would be my biggest concern. :(

Thank you all for such wonderful advice. My heart truly tells me to make the "hold" on paper...of course not changing him academically. However, my hand (brain) can't seem to make the click (I re-enroll online). Unfortunately, it is too late for the two peer groups of which he is already a part. In scouts, he just graduated from "Bears." He has completed that material and received his bear patch. He is excited to move on to Weblos I in the fall. In church, he has been in the same Sunday school class for three years and he is excited to move up with the rest of his peers to the later grade class. Being homeschooled, he gets along with most children no matter what the age...and Biblical head-knowledge is one of his major strong points. Our umbrella school requires that they spend at least 180 days in a grade level in order to pass on to the next grade level. I can hold him back (have him repeat a grade level) at any time...but to skip a grade, he has to have a composite score on the standardized test of 7 or above (which he already has). If I hold him back a grade, that score goes up...so, hopefully, if I did hold him back, I could later also skip him ahead if I felt like his maturity had advanced. I really hate being on the fence about this...but I am. I can't seem to get a clear picture in my mind of what high-school will look like if we DO hold back versus if we do NOT. It is frustrating. When I think that I am ready to move him on up to 4th grade, I start doubting...but then when I think I have decided to hold him back, I go back to doubting that too. haha! I am a mess! As for his age/grade: In our state, the cutoff is Sept. 30. His birthday is Sept. 29. If he had been born two days later on Oct. 1, this would not be an issue and he would be finishing up 2nd grade this year (entering 3rd). My older son has an August birthday and there have been many times I wish I had held him back. I didn't and he is a VERY inmature 8th grader right now. :( Academically, he is half-way through 8th grade and will start high-school level classes in Dec. However, his maturity is more like someone getting ready to enter 7th grade. There is really nothing I can do, at this point. He intends to go to high school at some point and holding him back at this late stage is just not an option (likely, he would freak out and go live with his father). I don't want to make this same mistake with my younger son and have him get too old for me to be able to hold him back comfortably.